What’s Current: Australian Senate passes motion banning ‘distorted’ gender-inclusive language in government materials

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  • The Australian Senate has banned the government from using terms that are described as “gender-inclusive.” Senator Roberts, who introduced the motion, said, “Broad scale genuine inclusion cannot be achieved through distortions of biological and relational descriptors.”
  • Pakistan sentenced two men to death for a widely-publicized incident of gang rape last year. After the assault, protesters demanded legal reforms and stronger sentences, and Pakistan implemented a new law against rape.
  • A woman who was lured into sex trafficking via Facebook at the age of 15 is suing the social media platform. Of an estimated 100,000 minors sex trafficked in the US each year, 40 per cent met their traffickers online in 2019.
  • A West Midlands male police officer avoided a prison sentence after admitting to attacking and beating a woman walking home at night. MP Harriet Harman condemned the leniency, drawing attention to the case, and in response, the officer resigned.
  • A university professor in southern Brazil has been fired after students reported advice he shared with female students during an online lecture, saying that women who are being raped should “relax and enjoy it.”
  • California lawmakers seek to abolish a legal distinction between spousal rape and other forms of sexual assault, which provides an exemption allowing for probation instead of prison.
Genevieve Gluck

Genevieve Gluck is a writer and advocate for women's sex-based rights and creator of Women's Voices, an audio library dedicated to bringing awareness to feminist texts and speeches.